Last week the 2015 Infinity Award for Outstanding Achievement in Photography, Photojournalism, was presented to Tomas van Houtryve. On Wednesday, he will discuss his drone photography and the increasing use of drones for surveillance and commercial purposes in the U.S. and abroad at the International Center of Photography. Van Houtryve joins a panel with E. Adam Attia (a.k.a. ESSAM), geospatial analyst turned photographic artist, and Brandon LaGanke and John Carlucci of GHOST+COW, an award-winning multimedia artist duo.

Each of the speakers have explored the boundaries between documentation and surveillance by drones. Stephen Mayes moderates, "The Rise of the Drones: Privacy, Power and Storytelling," exploring the practical and emotional place of drones in the modern world. Photo above: Baseball practice in Montgomery County, Maryland. The FAA issued 1,428 domestic drone permits between 2007 and early 2013. According to records obtained from the agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Navy have applied for drone authorization in Montgomery County.

 Residential homes surrounding a circular park are seen from above in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Van Houtryve  writes, “In October 2012, a drone strike in northeast Pakistan killed a 67-year-old woman picking okra outside her house. At a briefing held in 2013 in Washington, the woman’s 13-year-old grandson, Zubair Rehman, spoke to a group of five lawmakers. ‘I no longer love blue skies,’ said Rehman, who was injured by shrapnel in the attack. ‘In fact, I now prefer gray skies. The drones do not fly when the skies are gray.’

“Over the past decade," he continues, "drones have become the weapon of the United States military and the CIA for strikes overseas. Their use for surveillance and commercial purposes is also rapidly expanding both at home and abroad.”

A wedding in central Philadelphia. In December 2013, a U.S. drone reportedly struck a wedding in Radda, in central Yemen, killing twelve people and injuring fifteen.

Tomas van Houtryve attached his camera to a small drone and traveled across America to photograph the very sorts of gatherings that have become habitual targets for foreign air strikes—weddings, funerals, groups of people praying or exercising. He also flew his camera over settings in which drones are used to less lethal effect, such as prisons, oil fields, industrial feedlots, and stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border. The images captured from the drone’s perspective engage with the changing nature of war, privacy, and government transparency.

A playground seen from above in Sacramento County, California. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that over 200 children were killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia between 2004 and 2013. 

The Rise of the Drones: Privacy, Power, and Storytelling. Wednesday, May 6, 7pm. ICP School, 1114 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY. Free/Ticketsrequired.